Queensland police breached rules in fatal pursuit: court

Two Queensland constables breached police policy when they carried out a high speed pursuit that claimed a teen's life, an inquest has heard.

Paul Low, 19, was killed when the car he was a passenger in spun out of control and slammed into a tree at Murrumba Downs, north of Brisbane, in September 2012.

An inquest has heard the white Holden Calais was being followed at high speed by a police car along Dohles Rocks Road in the early hours of the morning when it crashed in a cloud of dust and smoke.

Analysis of CCTV footage and tyre marks showed the Holden was travelling somewhere between 154km/h and 206km/h during the pursuit.

The police car reached a top speed of between 135km/h and 190km/h.

The head of an internal police investigation told the inquest the two officers involved had been driving too fast, hadn't activated their car's lights or sirens and had waited far too long to radio police communications about the situation.

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"We were satisfied they had not complied with the Queensland Police safe driving policy," Detective Senior Sergeant Anthony Buxton said.

He said the two constables would be disciplined, but the form of discipline hadn't been decided.

Under cross-examination by counsel for the officers, Det Buxton maintained the constables had had enough time to consider police policy during the chase.

Mr Low's parents watched as the inquest was told their son had fallen in with the wrong crowd and had been driving with a friend to buy drugs when they attracted the attention of police.

Driver Peter Ollenburg, who fled the scene, was later jailed for eight years for dangerous driving causing death.